Viking Mines (ASX:VKA) has announced the mobilisation of its reverse circulation drill rig for the maiden drilling program at the Linka Tungsten Project in Nevada, US.
The company says the rig is being transported to the project, while field teams and an earthworks contractor prepare drill pads ahead of its arrival.
Viking expects drilling to begin after the rig arrives, with the first hole scheduled for the week commencing 27 July, subject to weather and site conditions.
The program marks the first drilling undertaken at Linka in more than 40 years and will test scheelite-bearing skarn mineralisation along the intrusive-limestone contact at the historic workings.
Managing Director and CEO Julian Woodcock says the mobilisation follows “a substantial amount of planning and groundwork” by the company.
“Our drilling approvals have come through just as tungsten prices have strengthened to multiyear highs, with European APT (Ammonium Paratungstate) trading at US$3,265 [$4,660] per metric ton unit, and with tungsten’s role as a critical mineral in Western defence and industrial supply chains firmly in focus. Advancing a US-based tungsten project at this point in the cycle is exactly where Viking wants to be,” Woodcock says.
Drilling will test shallow, near-mine ‘high-grade’ mineralisation and down-dip extensions at Linka. It will also target interpreted south-west extensions under shallow cover and regional targets along a 7km geophysical mapped intrusive contact.
Around 89% of the contact remains under shallow cover and untested.
The program follows metallurgical test work that produced a 56.9% tungsten trioxide (WO₃) concentrate at 76% recovery using conventional gravity and flotation methods.
Linka comprises three historically producing tungsten mines — Linka, Conquest, and Hillside — which produced approximately 65,000 tonnes @ 0.5% WO₃ through a 360-tonne-per-day mill until 1956.
The project contains a 46m shaft, historic pits and underground workings, an on-site run-of-mine pad, and a historical tailings dam. Sealed highway access is within 7km and grid power within 4km.
Surface sampling has returned grades of up to 14.7% WO₃, while the digitisation of 72 historical drill holes has extended the known mineralised trend to 1.6km.
Viking Mines says results will support its strategy to advance Linka towards a maiden mineral resource estimate.
Write to France Pinzon at Mining.com.au
Images: Viking Mines
